Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Sorry about the messup last week guys... life has been busy. I’m actually going to be leaving on a little trip this Halloween night… I won’t have any computer access and won’t be back for a little over a week. But, I'll give you an update Halloween Night, instead of Wednesday!

So folks, I think I’m going to grab my bag of Gummy Werewolves and my Werewolf Fur cotton candy, cuddle up with a good werewolf movie, my pencil and paper, and work on the next page, which will update on the ninth of November. After all, the weekend will be occupied with the baking of werewolf cupcakes and witch hat cookies, the mending of old stitching in costumes, and much merriment and revelry.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

So. Never underestimate old guys with bad teeth. Those ‘bad’ teeth may simply be a bit of the true self peeking through.

For a brief while, John was going to be much younger, and like most of the various characters in my head, for a time was considered as a possible main character. But, things change as you work out ideas and he’s become a bit different from his initial plans. He does just what I need him to though, so while a side character, I still love him.

When I was planning out Mapleveiw and first decided I wanted a toy shop there, I knew I wanted it to be run by a dragon for the purpose listed in the comic. He’d have easy access to what he’d chosen as his hoarding item: Plushies. However, deciding what type of dragon was the fun part, especially since Snap Dragon was the first real comic I worked on, and shaped how I do comics.

Since so much of the comic centers around the ability to shapeshift, I wanted to pick a dragon that was able to assume a different form, in one way or another. After all, dragons of varying kinds are well acquainted with shapeshifting… Heck, I mean in the story of Jason and Cadmus, they would sow dragon’s teeth—just the teeth, and men would basically grow from those teeth. If that isn’t freaky shapeshiftingness, I dunno what is.

But I digress! I toyed with the idea of having him be a descendant of the French Melusine, which, according to some stories, became a dragon-like creature. However, I’ve also heard that she was associated with merrows, nixies, and sirens… Normally I would have a book reference for you, but the Siren associations I actually came across in college psychology class. Apparently Jung saw them all as related archetypes. At least, that’s what my notes say my professor said. So… that idea was dismissed fairly quickly.

I also considered having him be “a” Quetzalcoatl. Of course, in Aztec myth, there was only one Quetzalcoatl. He was a god in the form of a feathered serpent, and is often lumped in with dragons. Sometimes though, he was depicted as rather human, and at one point, his brother turns him into a human! But… well, I just wasn’t feeling it. So, it was binned.

Other dragons were also considered for their appearance in Alchemy, which had an emphasis in turning one material into another… for instance, Wyverns represented untransmuted metal, dragons could be used to represent mercury, and most folks who know a little about such things are familiar with the oroboros, which has cycle-based symbolism similar to other creatures like the phoenix. One other sort of dragon to appear in alchemical texts and illustrations though, was the Lindorm.

Now… there are different ways of spelling or saying the name of this critter. Lindorm, lindworm, lindwurm… it varies upon which story you read, and where that story comes from. I first heard it spelled as Lindworm, however, there is a wonderful Swedish story called Bride of the Lindorm King and it’s that story I want people to think of when they read this comic, due to its shapeshifting content.

In the story, a woman gives birth to two sons… one is a perfectly normal human boy. The other is a lindorm… a snakelike dragon that has only one set of limbs: A powerful pair of arms, ended in cruel talons. The lindorm was cast out into the woods, where he grew and then returned to tell his human sibling that until he had received the love of a willing bride, his human brother would not marry.

Naturally, folks tried to hook the dragon up. It didn’t go so well, until a fortuneteller instructs a woman to be offered to the Lindorm while wearing nine dresses. The Lindorm is of course confused by the surplus of clothing, and asks her to take them off. She agrees, so long as he sheds a skin for every dress she removes (a requirement she was told to ask for). When the ninth skin is removed, underneath is the body of a man! And a handsome one at that.

Naturally, they wed and lived happily ever after. You can see where I get some of my ideas regarding ‘monsters’ being born of normal ol’ humans, and those monsters being capable of shapeshifting.

So, as you can see, The Lindorm eventually won out in the comic, and that’s how we ended up with John the toy store owner as he is today. What can I say? I put a stupid amount of thought into side characters sometimes.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Oh man guys, I’m sorry I couldn’t update last week. As the comic's disclaimer says: "Eldritch is done on the author’s free time, which means page quality will vary. In addition, updates may be missed if the author has a busy week or becomes ill. Should an update be missed, it will be at least a full week before more content will be posted. The author apologizes for the inconvenience." What can I say? I’m only one person, and my life got really messy.

The thing is, you know how after the Big Storm, I started whining about how my comp was acting up? Well, the hard drive was about to fail, and I found myself suddenly without a computer, and that meant I couldn’t even work on the comic, let alone update or let you guys know I was gone. Sometimes, I really miss having college computer labs at my disposal. Thankfully, aside from time, I didn’t lose anything important. But, add that hassle to my job and having to take my car into the shop for maintenance and that makes life… interesting.

I think I’ve mentioned before that Mapleveiw is based upon a few places I know and adore in real life, one of which loves Halloween. There is one town near where I grew up that goes insane for Halloween… We’re talking, ghosts and goblins rigged to fly across the street kind of insane. In fact, its general store has Halloween merchandise year-round, including a huge collection of masks. One of my earliest memories of Halloween memories is going into this store, being terrified by the masks, but receiving candy coins for trick or treating there. There’s no better way to convince a kid not to be scared of monsters than by conditioning it into thinking that it’s going to get candy every time it sees one.

The place has kind of always been our area’s own, private Cooger and Dark’s Carnival. I recall one Beggar’s Night, just before I graduated from High School, dressing up and walking from my friend’s place to the downtown, and even though the comic book shop and library, and other stores and businesses were long closed, we found the place swarmed with other folks my age, who weren’t out trick or treating, but dressed up and reveling there, spending long-saved lunch money on candied apples and caramel corn sold by vendors on the streets. In fact, it was in this town that I bought my first, and only latex werewolf mask.